As New Orleans reeled in the months after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, mental health experts pointed to one growing number with a particular level of concern: The city's suicide rate.

As was widely reported at the time, New Orleanians were killing themselves at a rate near triple what it had been before the storm. In a June 2006 story for The New York Times, Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Rouse said the suicide rate, which is measured per 100,000 residents, had jumped from fewer than 9 before Katrina to more than 26 after it. He and another expert noted the number was likely higher because some deaths remained unclassified or may have been incorrectly termed accidents.

A decade later, Rouse teamed up with RAND Corp. to study New Orleans' continued high suicide numbers. The second of two studies that resulted from that partnership was published in January, revealing new details about what the city faces. (The studies can be found here and here, but they are behind a paywall.)

The researchers, led by Dr. Rajeev Ramchand, spoke with family and close friends of 17 of the 60 people who took their own lives between January 2015 and April 2016. (There were 61 deaths during this time classified as suicides, but researchers left one out because it was ruled a suicide-homicide.) For comparison, that's about 30 percent the number of the 204 people killed by homicide in the same stretch of time in New Orleans, according to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune data.

Ramchand had been interested in undertaking a study of this type by talking to loved ones of those who had died by suicide. When the opportunity came up to do so in New Orleans, against the backdrop presented by Hurricane Katrina, he leapt at it.

"New Orleans did provide some interesting context," he said, not the least of which is the city's violent history and how unsafe some felt in the time immediately following the storm.

"There's a notion that where guns are more present ... there are higher suicide rates," he said. "People buy guns to protect themselves from violence, but in doing so, the unintended consequences are, if you have more guns around, you'll have more accidental deaths and more suicide."

So the researchers started calling.

Over a 16-month stretch of research in New Orleans, guns were used in 53 percent of suicides. A handgun specifically was used in eight of the 17 examined New Orleans cases.

In 2015, 722 suicides were reported across Louisiana, and in 65 percent of those cases, a gun was used. The disparity between New Orleans and statewide data, Ramchand said, could be attributed to the higher rates of gun ownership generally expected in rural areas, though he said the latest state-level gun ownership data was compiled in 2004.

In discussing the results, researchers noted that an "unintended consequence" of reducing crime in New Orleans and creating an environment in which people feel safer could mean fewer gun owners, which in turn could mean diminished access to guns and thusly fewer suicides.

Nationally, The Trace reports that between 2013 and 2016, suicide accounts for 61.6 percent of gun deaths. In Louisiana in 2015, researchers reported, about 75 percent of gun deaths were suicides.

Suicide by asphyxiationor suffocation, was the next most common cause of death in New Orleans during the research period, seen in 25 percent of cases.

Men in New Orleans were more likely to kill themselves than women in those months, comprising 52 of the 60 cases. And those who commit suicide are more likely to be white, according to the researchers' data. Though whites make up 30.7 percent of the city, that part of the population accounted for 67 percent of suicides.

Ramchand and his team also took a look at the circumstances around the deaths, he said, trying to nail down advance indicators. A difficult one to parse, he said, was trauma, which could range from childhood abuse to a recent experience of violence, the death of a loved one or even a natural disaster.

"Trauma isn't necessary," he said of suicide deaths. "But it is a sufficient factor. We weren't able to untangle it, but I do think it's an area of interest."

Of note, Ramchand said, is that a few of the family members researchers spoke with reported that guns had been purchased after Katrina by those who died by suicide. The purchases, he said were a "direct response" to the storm.

Still, the most common thread in all the cases researchers examined was chronic mental illness. Of the 17 cases, 12 were reported to have had a "lifetime history of at least one mental health diagnosis," researchers reported.

Lowering New Orleans' suicide rate, then, could take a variety of solutions, the research implies, like making people feel generally safer. It might be a lofty goal, but, until then, they noted, "investment should also be made to ensure" people have "appropriate resources to grieve."

Note: If you or you're concerned a loved one is having suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK. You can also text "START" to 741741, the Crisis Text Line. If you suspect someone of needing immediate help, call 911.

Gay, lesbian and transgendered youth can also call the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386 anytime. They can also text 202-304-1200 or chat online with the Trevor Project between 2 p.m. and 9 p.m. CT.

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Chelsea Brasted is a metro columnist covering the New Orleans area. Send story ideas, tips, complaints and fan mail to cbrasted@nola.com. You can also text or call 225.460.1350, and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.